If You Don't

[animusmods]

Characters: All who are signed up for the If You Don't event!
Setting: Everywhere
Format: Anything
Summary: The shadow children come out to play, hungry for their candy...
Warnings: Psychological horror, possible character death.

As those who are participating in the event wake up on the morning of the 26th, they'll see clawing hands at the edges of their vision that dart away as soon as they're fully awake. Maybe it was just a lingering dream? But there's another note left for them to find:

trick or treat
smell my feet
give me something good to eat

i f y o u d o n ' t

There is a drawing of a heart at the bottom of the paper, as usual for notes received during Ruana's games, though it's wet and red and appears to be fresh blood.

Still nothing, will happen until the sun begins to set. Once it does, skittering, shifting shadow children will come out to play, tracking down one of the characters participating in the game. They will request a specific kind of candy--not with a normal voice, but with a penetrating, tearing sort of mental intrusion.

You will have until 11:59 PM to figure out what they want, and woe betide you if you get it wrong and give them something they don't like...

Reply to the subthread for each night to receive your character's riddle for that night. Note: While you can request riddles in advance, you will not receive the riddles for nights 2 and on until your character has solved or failed to solve the riddle preceding it and received their consequences, if applicable.

Riddle Subthreads:
October 26th
October 27th
October 28th
October 29th
October 30th
October 31st

Feel free to create your own top-levels for IC mingling during these days - to have your character trying to puzzle out their riddles, search for/negotiate with people who have the candies they need, make attempts to steal candies, and deal with any consequences they get later on for not giving their shadow children the correct candies - but be sure you indicate which night it is in the subject header.

Some other things to note:
- Now that all the remaining candy in the Tower has been put into bowls, it can be perceived and interacted with by everyone, even those who are not signed up for the event.
- Candy that is removed from a bowl will remain in existence so long as it is in a character's hand, but will vanish if set down, put into a bag, etc. If it is transferred from one bowl to another, that is okay. If it is taken from a bowl and handed to a shadow child, that is okay.
- Only the character being asked for candy will be able to hear the shadow child that is doing the asking, though others will be able to see it.
- The shadow child will follow your character until they fetch the candy from their room and will repeat the riddle at any time, when asked; this can be handwaved without a mod response.
- The shadow children will not take any notice of characters that are not the ones they are asking for candy from.

Mod replies will only occur in the riddle subthreads, to 1. give out the riddle and 2. respond with any consequences once a character has given (or not given) a shadow child their candy.

Comments

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow snarls and bares its teeth, then snaps at him -

trick trick t r i c k t r i c k

He will feel as if his mind is having sharp thorns jabbed into it for thirty seconds. When this sensation fades, he there will be a faint twinge in his hands and ankles, and occasionally pain will course through them as though someone is hammering in a nail. This will persist through the week.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow shakes its head violently, and a single word rips its way through his mind.

NO

It snarls and knocks the bloodbag away, and when it hits the floor, it vanishes. Then it sets its gaze on Shion with a low growl.

Black, black, red...]

[animusnpcs]

[The ink of the book in Claudia's lap squiggles and solidifies into a mass of black, and a shadow claws its way from the pages. It doesn't speak but she can hear it, clearly and painfully, in her mind.

Can't carve these, can't carve these, they're too sweet... I want more than one but less than three!]

[sicharia]

[Claudia does the sensible thing to do in this scenario, which is shriek and toss the book away from herself. It lands, still open, at the foot of her bed. By the time the shadow has emerged, she has stood and backed away, her eye wide and her arms braced in front of herself.]

[She relaxes, but only slightly, once she realizes what the visitor is. These things have never harmed her directly, but... When it speaks without speaking, she winces, cringing as the words insert themselves into her head.]

Can't...carve?

[It takes her a couple of repetitions to realize she isn't going to get a more specific request than that. It's somewhat nervously that she picks through her bowl of candy—that has to be what it wants, right?—before settling on a pair of candy pumpkins.]

Are these what you want? [She offers them to the shadow, candy resting in the palm of her hand.]

[bydefacto]

[Sealand knows not to stay out his room after dark, so it's just before sundown that he heads back to his room, having spent most of the afternoon in the media room. He'd tried to look for candy that morning, but had soon given up when he found nothing.

When sundown arrives, he's lying on his bed, holding his stuffed seagull to his chest. He yawns and his eyes close, soon dozing off.]

[warriorscribe]

*Yeah, definitely no choice but to stay awake. He shudders at the hissing, kneeling up on the bed and moving his pillow off the candy bowl to look at what he has.*

Stomachs stuffed with amber...?

*After pawing through his candy, his hand closes around three peanut butter cups. Peanut butter is kind of amber-ish, right? He isn't familiar with all the varieties of candy and had never made an effort to learn after every experience with the stuff had been negative. If he had, he might have gone looking for something else. But he holds these out to the shadow child.*

It doesn't have a stomach, but is this close enough to amber?

[stitchedupbodyguard]

[Veronica hadn't left her room the entire day, having been to nervous to do so. Though, that didn't keep her from thinking about her friends.

So at sundown she's in there, sitting on her bed and looking down at her necklace in thought. She hadn't gathered as much candy as the others had. It would be okay though. She would just have to face whatever comes head on. What's the worst that could happen to her?]

[ladyliberty]

[Amelia didn't like being in the dormitory if she didn't have to be, but lately she'd been spending more and more time there, especially as her candy stash grew. It was a pretty good stash, she thought, and it would probably be pretty tempting to candy thieves. Especially after the note she'd found by her bed that morning, she had an uneasy feeling whenever she was away for too long. So even though the prospect of spending all evening in her room wasn't very appealing, she was sitting in her bed by sundown, cocooned in her blankets to keep out the chill and distractedly munching on a chocolate bar.]

[sageprincess]

[Zelda is in her room, working on the collar research transcriptions that she's fallen behind on due to the candy hunt. Given she is the only resident of Room 1-09 now, the door is locked for safety's sake. She likes to think she's beyond being scared by Ruana's games, but perhaps that bloody note has put her a bit on edge...]

[taintedwhite]

[Shiro is sitting crosslegged in the middle of her bed, her bowl full of candies set in between her legs.

She wants to play the game, of course. Games are fun. Though she's not quite sure she wants to share those with Ruana. What if she asks for Shiro's favorite pieces of candy? The strawberry flavored ones?

She stares at the candy in her bowl, resisting the temptation to hide a few. But she doesn't want to lose the game... Ganta would be so proud of her if she did. So eventually she just goes back to waiting patiently.]

[taintedwhite]

[Alright. This was fun. So Shiro is willing to play the guessing game again tonight. Even if it means losing more candy, it was funny enough. And maybe the child will end up being a friend to Shiro? Shiro's never had any shadow friend before.]

Re: OCTOBER 26TH

[raindownthesky]

[Worry was tugging at the back of Fang's mind the entire day. Something told her she didn't have enough candy, and for what reason?

When she read the letter, everything was starting to come together. She shudders at the sight of the heart. Was that...blood?

That night, she had opted to keep herself in her room, not wanting to chance facing the unknown. She had seen the dark shadows in the corners of her eyes, but decided it must have been sleep deprivation, as she hadn't gotten much sleep since the first letter arrived.

Sitting on her bed, she read the note over and over. But if you don't... What was that supposed to mean?]

[notsogrimreaper]

[Ryoji spends most of his time in his room. After failing twice, he's getting anxious about what tonight's riddle will be, and he's keeping an eye on his candy, since he can't afford to have anyone stealing the small amount he does have. As sundown gets nearer, he starts keeping an eye out for the child, ignoring the dog lurking in the corner of his vision.]

[OU] Sephiroth

[neverbeamemory]

[Clawing hands around either side of his vision? What a way to wake up in the morning. Talk about a wake-up call even if Sephiroth will feel suitably irritated afterwards for even reacting to such an illusion. Just what else did she have in store for him? This game is the worst.

That note as well - it's like Ruana but isn't? Sephiroth could tell it was fresh blood, a brief raise of the note to his nose told him that much. At least it seems as if the game is coming to it's climax. He imagines he'd probably have felt a lot worse about it if he hadn't candy-hunted yesterday - needing that sense of dread on top of the note? It's better that his mind is clear.

At sunset, Sephiroth is just finishing up after a shower in the Dorm Level 3 bathroom.]

[ooc: I'd prefer to update this as we go along as well, because consequences and/or death etc, but it really depends on what happens - if it drags too long am happy to hand wave o/]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow's mouth splits into a wide, wide grin and it snatches the candy out of her hand.

Then it pops both of them into its mouth, and vanishes when its teeth come crashing down.

Claudia has given out the correct candy.]

[bashfulshifter]

[As soon as Rick had realized there was no more candy to be found on the morning of the 26th, he immediately holed himself in his room and has since never left. He probably should've known that the payoff for his efforts would coincide with the second note appearing on his bedside table, but he had to make sure. Even the slightest misstep could ruin his chances of catching Ruana's attention. Even if he didn't actually know how any of this would lead to her.]

[The blonde man wakes up at sundown from a light, restless nap, arms wrapped around the overflowing candy bowl next to his bed. He thinks to snack on some pumpkin pastries he napped from the cafeteria several days ago, but the idea of taking his eyes off his candy stash for more than a few moments sends him into fits of paranoid panic. So instead he sits in bed, motionless, waiting for something--anything--to happen--while simultaneously dreading what it could possibly be.]

[sicharia]

[Claudia is, once again, in her room at sunset. After what had happened the night before, she isn't reading this time. Instead, she sits on the edge of her bed and waits, if somewhat tensely.]

[animusnpcs]

[The seagull shifts in his arms, and then suddenly it's not there anymore - it's on the ground a few feet away, and it's a shadow Sealand is snuggled up against. He will be rudely awakened by words forcing themselves into his mind.

i don't want to go to the doctor i don't want to go just give me one thing so i don't have to go]

[animusnpcs]

[Veronica will see a shadow out of the corner of her eye, and then it's there, standing in front of her and staring up at her expectantly. Its mouth never moves but she hears the words in her mind, sharp as knives.

i said when i grew up i wanted to see the stars but i won't ever grow up so can i have some of their food instead? i want two kinds and one of each, but i don't like pink]

[animusnpcs]

[There will be a strange feeling at her feet, and then a rustling under her blankets - like something is there and it wants out. She'll feel something crawling up, until it pokes its head out from under the blankets and grins at her with too-white teeth.

glub glub, one ---- two ----, under the deep blue sea

The worlds rip themselves into her mind and there is a piercing screeching sound where some words cannot be made out.]

[bydefacto]

[Sealand sucks in a sharp breath the moment he see the shadow where his toy used to be, a small horrified scream coming from his mouth. He almost jumps out of bed, but somehow manages to remain where he is, listening carefully to the strange voice.

He remembers a rhyme he used to be told back home, in some useless hope he'd eat more fruit. He swallows.]

An... apple a day keeps the doctor away?

[He's shaking a little as he dunks his hand into his bowl beside him and brings out one apple for the shadow child. He has plenty, not wanting to eat any himself.]

[animusnpcs]

[The shadow snarls and swipes at his arm, knocking the peanut butter cups into nonexistence. It vanishes, and a word echoes itself in Enoch's mind.

TRICK!

Enoch will feel as though his stomach has been stuffed with... something. From time to time, his body will be wracked with coughs and he will cough up caramel.]

OCTOBER 26TH

[no_longer_a_king]

[Arturia is eating dinner in the cafeteria, on edge because she knows the second part of the game is coming today. Might as well try to get something into her stomach before the trouble starts. Those claws on the edge of her vision were definitely not a dream.

She just didn't expect the 'tricks' to start at sundown.]

[mostremaining]

[Darn, where did all the candy go? It seemed to have vanished after the first day, though he had heard that other people were still finding candy. Weird. Even though he had made attempts to search after the first day, Prussia was an impatient sort. If he didn't get any results quickly, he was bound to abandon the chase, and so he did. He did no searching at all this last day, figuring that it wasn't worth it. At sundown, he is in his room, boredly playing with his bird and forgetting whether or not the cafeteria is open for a snack or not.]

[animusnpcs]

[Zelda will hear the door open, but if she looks up it will be closed. When she next looks down at the transcriptions, there will be a shadow sitting on them. It smiles and coos and words rip themselves into her mind.

i'm a girl and i want three best friends]